CURSED - mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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cursedrp2022-09-08 03:47 pm
cursedmods) wrote in cursedrp2022-09-08 03:47 pm
Entry tags:
EVENT #1: SAY CHEESE
SAY CHEESE
The Rundown
Starting on September 8th, all characters will find themselves transported to White Pines Mall. During this time, the mall is closed to the public for renovations and no one suspects a thing! The power is on and everything is mysteriously functioning, but all the doors to the outside world are locked and no amount of pounding on them or trying to break windows will work. About an hour after arrival, an announcement will come over the PA system:Extra Information
"Attention shoppers! Thank you for visiting White Pines Mall. We're excited to announce a new line of very special cameras available at Cutting Edge Electronics. For one week only, we're offering them for the low, low price of FREE! Present your photo at the front door to exit the mall, and have a wonderful day."
At Cutting Edge electronics, a row of Polaroid cameras will be on display, one for each character. All you have to do to leave the mall is get someone to take your picture with one of these cameras! Easy, right? Well...
The only issue is when the photo develops, there's something wrong with it. And that's not all: whatever's in the photo starts to come true! Effects from the photo can come on as quickly or as slowly as you like, and will wear off within the week (again, player's choice as to when exactly they wear off). If multiple photos of a character are taken, you have two options: have them be normal photos with no effect until the character's current effect wears off, OR have a new effect that replaces the old one. Characters cannot have multiple effects at one time.
Every character in the mall will need to present a photo in order to leave (and they won't be allowed to sneak out or piggyback with someone else). They can leave right away, or they can stay and try to deal with their new problem away from prying eyes until the event is over. The food court is fully stocked and anything your character orders will appear on the counter in front of them even though there are no employees there, so don't worry about starving.
The opt-out options for this event are as follows: one, say that your character was overlooked and not transported to the mall at all. They can continue to hang out in the city as normal but will not be able to enter the mall until the event is over. Two, have them be transported to the mall and end up with a "dud" photo where nothing has changed. It happens sometimes, lucky them!
Everyone will be kicked out at the end of the day on the 12th regardless of whether they took a photo or not. Any damage done to the mall will be repaired when it re-opens for business the next day.
After this event, the cursed camera item will be permanently available to purchase from Cutting Edge Electronics and can be used at any time. Why would you want to buy that? Revenge, maybe. Or maybe some meddling employee accidentally mixed the cursed stock with the regular stock. TL;DR if you want to play with this effect again after the event is over, the item will be there.
The effects of the camera are highly flexible. The effects don't have to be tied in to any specific fear they have, but of course you can use that as inspiration if you would like to. Some examples of effects can include:
Characters appear wounded in their photo, and the wounds start to manifest on them. Even wounds that should be fatal won't actually kill them during this event, but they sure hurt like hell and it may feel like they're dying if they keep progressing.
A character appears faded in their photo, and they gradually become intangible, unable to move anything or even let themselves out without help.
Characters who took a group photo to try and cheat the system find themselves fused together, or that they've swapped bodies.
There's a shadowy figure in the background of the photo, and for the rest of the week the affected character keeps seeing someone - or something - moving in their peripheral vision that feels like it's getting closer and closer.
Any of these effects are fair game but they are just examples, so feel free to make your own! Try and keep with the tone of these prompts and not go too big, some degree of transformation is fine but don't turn your character into a kitten or a three-headed dragon.
Characters can choose to leave right away or stay for a while, but they won't actually be told they'll be let go/kicked out on the 12th regardless.
Dr. Rodney McKay | Stargate: Atlantis
[For the longest time, McKay doesn't get his photo taken. Who cares if he can't leave the mall. He doesn't want to leave the mall. He's too busy.
Too busy with Sheppard turning into the Mist and Rodney fervently looking for a solution, too busy with people showing the strange effects of this new chapter in this ridiculous neon nightmare story, too busy trying to work with technology that while, admittedly, has a nostalgic component? Is utterly, infuriatingly useless for what he's trying to do.
He's perched next to a counter at Cutting Edge Electronics, surrounded by cables, gadgets, screens, and just about every clunky piece of 80s machinery he dragged over, like an angry tech crow in its nest of plastic and copper. One of the Polaroid cameras sits disassembled on top of it and it told him a great big heap of nothing. Right now he's trying to combine a gutted Macintosh with a remote filled with parts from an old Casio calculator, a dissected circuit board and some other ingredients tossed into the mix. In the noble attempt to turn said remote into a makeshift scanning device.
It does nothing.
It's useless. Nothing's working.
Maybe that's his curse. Maybe technology just refuses to do what it's supposed to do.]
We're closed!
[It's barked without him looking up, rudely waving away whoever enters the store.
Then a pause, and his head snaps up after all.]
Wait, wait, are you affected? Get over here. Do you still have your picture?
ii. food source
[So everything sucks. What else is new.
When he gets too tired or too irritable to keep working, Rodney either crashes in one of the stores or, more likely, raids the food court, carrying around a plate with food. A lot of food. So much food.
It's clear that horrific events sour his mood but don't ruin his appetite. If someone walks by who seems visibly affected he slows in his chewing and frowns, watching them for a moment. (If it's of the disgusting sort he may even pull a face or mutter something about taking whatever is ailing them somewhere else. But he still keeps eating.)
Then points.]
I take it that's not normal.
iii. picture perfect (affected)
(ooc: Rodney's picture shows him as a teenager which will come with temporary memory loss and lots of awk.)
[All right. Fine. Take a picture.
It's stupid, he knows, with how people seem to go through all sorts of awful... whatever you wanted to call them. He wonders if what is happening right now is their curse or if this is just some extra on top. Curse raised to a power. Cute.
So yeah, with all the terribleness going around he was planning on, you know, just not doing it. But he also has a teammate that turns Casper on him and he needs to get out of here, needs to see if maybe somewhere else he can find answers. So finally he caves.
Except the picture shows him at about half his age and any idea of leaving is thwarted by the fact that he is now half his age and has no idea how he ended up at the mall or how he got there. It looks familiar enough to the one he used to go to with his family but that doesn't exactly help. In fact, that just adds to the anxiety. He got lost in that mall when he was a kid and it's not a good memory.
Okay. There must be a perfectly logical explanation. Maybe his blood sugar is low and he got disoriented and that's... that's why he walked in here to get some food. That's probably it.
Doesn't explain the weird clothes he's wearing.
Something is wrong about all this and it makes him uneasy. Uneasy enough to actually approach other people (ugh) and talk to them (ugh).]
Hi. Uh. This is going to sound... I'm looking for the exit? Must have gotten turned around...
iv. the scientific method (affected)
[All right, walking around and forcing himself to interact with people Rodney has figured out a few things.
One, this place is insane or maybe he is. Two, the multiverse is real. Which would be kind of cool if he wasn't stuck in a terrifying effect instead of reading the theoretical proof in a physics textbook. Three, he's in a mall with a bunch of strangers and out of all these? That's definitely the worst.
But he can only hide for so long and eventually, curiosity and the need to explore his situation takes over.
Only that it's quite destructive because at some point he starts dropping plants from higher levels. Breaking windows. Starting small fires.
To an outsider he might look like the world's geekiest teenage hooligan but he's actually taking detailed notes after each incident, checking for gravity, motion, thermodynamics. Testing if the laws of physics apply in this realm in a way they're supposed to.
And, eventually, at what rate it seems to reset itself.]
v. wildcard
[hit me up! c: or drop me a line at
iv
He thought it was necessary and while his efforts may have revealed very little, he also thought that maybe Rodney could just, maybe, not get into more trouble.
But apparently that didn't happen.
And now John is staring at what looks an awful lot like Rodney McKay except far younger, participating in what only looks like a concerted effort to destroy the mall or burn it down or something. Is that...that is him, right? It can't be anybody else, but then again who knows in this place...]
What the hell do you think you're doing!?
[He storms over, waving his hands, trying to get him to stop, which pretty much looks like an angry, vaguely military-looking ghost marching his way over to him.]
no subject
Because of course there are.]
Wh--
[Rodney jumps back, his eyes wide, dropping the decorative stone that he was about to utilize to calculate laws of motion and trajectories when you threw said stones into a mall window.]
What the hell?!
no subject
You mind telling me exactly what you think you're doing here?
[He crosses his fading arms, tilting his head.]
Were you gonna throw that stone into the window? I really fail to see how that's gonna get us out of this situation!
no subject
Also, probably not a mall cop, which is good.]
I'm actually researching, thank you very much.
[It's huffy but also defensive in a teenage way, lacking Rodney's sharper bark and arrogance. He takes a step back, crossing his arms and not quite looking John in the eye at the accusation.]
Dreams and shared hallucinations can only mimic natural laws to a certain degree. Sort of like how you can never properly read in a dream? If there are irregularities in the chains of cause and effect that might help us learn more about this place.
[Yes, he was gonna throw that stone into the window.]
no subject
...that makes sense.
[That actually is pretty smart. But there's something off about the way Rodney talks, and something in the way he's reacting to him is setting off alarm bells in his head.]
Unless it's a simulation, which we already talked about!
[They already talked about that, right? Please say yes.]
So why did you take the picture? You took the picture, right, and this didn't just randomly happen to you? I could've been there to help you!
no subject
[More information. A lot of information. Simulation. Already talked about. Took the picture.
Except it doesn't make sense, it's all disjointed and incomplete and he can't make heads or tails out of it other than that his ghost man apparently knows him.
And that's scary because all of this is bad enough but if memory loss was added into the mix...]
What are you talking about? Who are you?
no subject
The sinking feeling is turning into sheer terror, and even though he knows it's probably impossible to actually be breathing real air at the moment he draws in a sharp breath anyway, his eyes widening.
Who are you? says the kid with Rodney's face and John feels like he's in an out-of-control plane, the ground rushing into view at a speed he can't control.]
John Sheppard. Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, of the Atlantis Expedition. Which you're a part of, Meredith Rodney McKay, and yes, you've already graduated college! A lot of college!
no subject
That's a lot of information. In a very short time. Rodney's face does a lot of things, conveying a lot of feelings while he tries to sort through all that.]
Okay, you're actually being really freaky right now! Which is saying something, given that you are a literal ghost! And Atlantis Expedition, seriously? That's the fakest sounding name I have ever heard!